The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) has announced that Jeff Fort has assumed the role of chief operating officer, in addition to his existing position as chief financial officer, a position he has held with the organization since 2012.
“Since its inception in 1997, Jeff has supported GAA in many capacities and has been instrumental recently with the consolidation of operations and staffing in our Portsmouth, New Hampshire, headquarters,” said GAA Executive Director Wally Stevens. “The professionalism and performance of our associates is what distinguishes the Global Aquaculture Alliance, and Jeff can rightly take a good deal of credit for getting us to where we are today.”
Fort was an officer and board member of the Aquaculture Certification Council, predecessor of the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification program. He has been owner and chief executive officer of Delta Blue Aquaculture since 1992, and his shrimp farm in Belize was the world’s first aquaculture farm to attain BAP certification. He has also been owner of Utah-based seafood distributor Fog River LLC since 2009, and a partner in Vermont-based online wildflower retailer AmericanMeadows.com since 2008.
BAP is regarded as the world’s most comprehensive third-party aquaculture certification program, with standards encompassing environmental responsibility, social responsibility, food safety, animal health and welfare and traceability. It’s the only program to cover the entire aquaculture production chain – processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills.
Through the first three-quarters of 2017, the number of BAP-certified facilities totaled 1,794 worldwide.
